The 8-foot-tall bronze replica of a dinosaur has been living large for more than a month among scattered weeds on a vacant dirt lot in the hills on the west side of La Mesa.

Now, he is apparently getting ready for Halloween. Last week, Toby was decked out in a rainbow wig with a lei around his neck, a tutu on his tail, carrying a plastic pumpkin pail, with a huge plastic greenish skeleton riding on his back.

After curious onlookers wondered how a 300-lb. statue by Borrego Springs-based artist Ricardo Breceda got into a fenced-off lot off Eastridge and Monte drives, the lot’s developer confessed he was the mastermind.

Jeff Phair of The Phair Company, and some of his family members, secured Toby in place where grading will start in January for 40 homes that will be called La Mesa Summit Estates sometime in 2020. Toby will remain on the property and become part of a park the developer will make accessible to members of the public.

Phair said he put the dinosaur on the property to make good on a promise he made to his two sons 30 years ago about getting them their own Tyrannosaurus Rex statue.

Phair said he is having fun with Toby. He and his wife, Julie, put the tutu and wig on Toby earlier this month. He said someone else added the plastic pumpkin soon thereafter, followed by the skeleton a few days later.

“Toby the T-Rex has created a lot of excitement,” he said. “I was at the site Sunday (Oct. 14). A van with five to six young kids pulled up. They took pictures of Toby. One of the kids told me that they were going to start a Toby fan club.”

The fan club will have a member in Karen Childress-Evans, who has lived in the Serramar neighborhood with her husband, Jim, for about 10 years. She can see Toby from the front of her house.

“We wake up to Toby every morning,” she said. “It is so cute to see families bringing their little kids to see Toby. We see their chubby little fingers pointing to him. And now with him decorated, it’s like the Cardiff Kook. It’s adorable. People driving by makes it seem like we have Christmas lights people are coming to see. It’s very charming.”

The Cardiff Kook is a bronze statue of a surfer on Highway 101 in Encinitas. Created by artist Matthew Antichevich in 2007, the piece is often cleverly dressed up by locals. The Kook has been a jack-o-lantern, Santa Claus and a clown. It has posed as Vincent van Gogh, Oprah Winfrey and Michael Jackson.

Childress-Evans said the neighborhood has come alive since before Toby’s arrival. She said her husband is the head of the local Neighborhood Watch and drug paraphernalia, fast-food bags and other litter was the norm in the area. High school kids were doing things they shouldn’t be doing, she said.

Karen Pearlman/San Diego Union-Tribune

Toby the T-Rex is getting a taste of fame in La Mesa. Someone recently attached a small green plastic dinosaur friend on the fence where Toby lives.

Toby the T-Rex is getting a taste of fame in La Mesa. Someone recently attached a small green plastic dinosaur friend on the fence where Toby lives. (Karen Pearlman/San Diego Union-Tribune)

When Phair bought the property, he gated it off. Neighbors on either side of the area installed outside lights.

“The place is cleaned up,” she said. “It was a known drug spot. Cars still show up, but they don’t stay long. Kids don’t come and have parties, no one flips us off driving by. It’s been lovely to not have that hassle. We are really thrilled about everything that is happening here.”

Phair said he knows that people are scaling the fence and getting onto the property and acknowledges that he’ll never be able to stop people from gaining access. He added that he doesn’t think the publicity Toby is receiving will encourage trespassing.

“It is going to happen anyway,” Phair said. “When I visited the property Sunday, Toby’s pumpkin bucket was full of empty beer cans.”

(Not the best diet for a T-Rex, a documented meat eater.)

As for post-Halloween plans for Toby, Phair isn’t sure yet what decor the dino will don.

“I don’t know if Toby will be dressed up as a Pilgrim on Thanksgiving or an elf at Christmas,” he said. “Who knows what the future holds.”